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as to what was going on, but he just gazed back blandly at me.
    “I told her that dealing with employee theft wasn’t really my thing.”
    “I see. And she just let it go at that?”
    “Sort of. She did ask me to think it over, and I said I would. I got the feeling there was more to it than she was letting on.”
    Out of the corner of my eye I saw Eli nod approvingly. Victor pushed around the remnants of his omelette with his fork.
    “With Jessie there usually is.” More omelette pushing. “Well, after you’ve given it some thought, it might be a good idea to call her and say you’ve changed your mind.”
    “Oh? And why’s that?”
    “How else are you going to find out what she really wants from you?”
    “Do I care?”
    “Maybe not, but I do.”
    Eli weighed in before we started sniping at each other again.
    “You see, Mason, this Jessie woman has a long history with Victor. Very long. They differ on some very crucial matters concerning practitioner society.”
    “She mentioned something about that,” I said. “Organizing practitioners. Moving into the twenty-first century. Apparently she thinks Victor is somewhat of a fuddyduddy. But how long a history could she have had with him, anyway? She can’t be more than what—twenty-nine, thirty, if that.”
    Victor gave me that half smile of his, the one where one corner of his mouth twitches up, just enough to let me know he knows something I don’t.
    “She’s been uncommonly active,” he said.
    “Yes, and she’s quite the organizer as well,” Eli said. “She likes being in charge, and she’s very good at it. And therein lies the problem.”
    “Because she’s a black practitioner?”
    “No, not precisely, although that doesn’t help. But she’s always been an advocate for a more formal society of practitioners—something that we’ve never had—an official set of rules and laws, not just guidelines based on tradition.”
    “And with herself in charge, naturally,” Victor added.
    “I see.”
    So it was basically a turf war. Victor’s enforcer role was entirely unofficial, but he’d never been challenged about it. Sure, we’d had trouble with practitioners trying to kill us, or do other unpleasant things, but they were criminals, not political rivals. They had no problem with the system; they just thought it shouldn’t apply to them.
    “She’s been building her base for quite a few years,” Eli continued. “The fact that she’s appeared in San Francisco now could mean she’s ready to move. She considers Victor her greatest obstacle, and I think she’s ready to take him on.”
    “You mean like an all-out war? Sounds bizarre.”
    “No, of course not; that would be ridiculous. That’s not what she has in mind at all. She’s a businesswoman, not an assassin. And although I think she wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone if it were necessary, that’s not what we’re dealing with. She wants to rule by acclamation, not force.”
    “It’ll never happen,” I said, shaking my head. “Practitioners are a notoriously independent breed. They may put up with our little group because we’re a necessity, but they’d never go for anyone actually being in charge of them.”
    “Maybe, maybe not. What if she proposed that practitioners be allowed to use their talents to win money at gambling? Or what if she proposed we finally come out of the closet, make ourselves known to society at large? Run for political office, using a bit of glamour to sway votes? Run the country, for that matter? A lot of younger practitioners aren’t wedded to the old ways.”
    “Hmm. I never looked at it that way. But what does that have to do with her wanting to hire me?”
    “Maybe she wants to make a convert out of you,” Victor said.
    “Why me? Why not Eli? He’d be a hell of a lot more useful.”
    “She knows Eli would be a hard one to convince, to put it mildly. You, however, have somewhat of a reputation. One you encourage, I might add. Mason the